JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College volleyball team won its third straight match overall and recorded its second 3-0 sweep of MacMurray College this season on Wednesday night with a 25-16, 25-11, 25-22 win over the Highlanders. The Lady Blues up their mark to 18-6 this season with the victory.
Illinois College took control of the match with two strong performances in the opening two sets before holding off a challenge from the Highlanders in the third to complete the sweep. MacMurray led briefly early on in the first set before the Lady Blues took the lead for good at 6-5 on an ace from
Ali Pankey. The lead swelled throughout the set as MacMurray errors piled up.
Maddie Ramsey had two kills in a four-point streak for IC that increased the margin to 21-12 and the Highlanders never issued a serious challenge from there.
The second set was even more dominant from Illinois College. After MacMurray tied the score at 1-1, the Lady Blues reeled off 11 straight points to take a commanding 12-1 lead. The Highlanders never got closer than 10 points after that as IC hit .317 in the set.
Rebecca Shields had six kills in the set, Pankey added four and
Madison Klanke had three in the closing stretch of play to seal the 25-11 win.
MacMurray was ready to fight in the third set and it took a late run from the Lady Blues to close it out. Though Illinois College led early on by as many as four points, the Highlanders battled back to tie the score at 13-13, before tacking on two more points for a 15-13 lead. The lead see-sawed from there, with IC taking a 20-18 lead after an ace from
Elizabeth Ganley to force a timeout from MacMurray. Out of that break, the Highlanders scored three straight to take a 21-20 lead and necessitate a timeout from the Lady Blues. With the score 22-21 in favor of MacMurray,
MacKenzie Heinz and Pankey had back-to-back kills to put IC back on top, 23-22. Two attack errors later, the Lady Blues had the 25-22 win and the sweep.
Pankey had a match-high 16 kills on the night and added on 11 digs. Shields had 10 kills and did not commit an error, hitting .476 for the match. Klanke added nine kills.
Madie Budd also had nine digs on the night for IC and
Cheyanne Jockisch contributed seven digs and a pair of aces.
Illinois College continues non-conference play on Friday with a pair of matches at a tournament hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University. The Lady Blues take on Nebraska Wesleyan University at 5 p.m. and Centre College at 7 p.m.
